India’s batting order during Tendulkar’s time was better than Kohli’s team – Mohammad Yousuf

Former Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has stated that India’s batting order of the previous generation was better than the current one. Yousuf feels the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman were better than the current batters – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and KL Rahul.

Meanwhile, the previous Indian batsmen dominated the cricket world and that team was regarded as one of the finest batting orders in the game. Sachin Tendulkar has most of the batting records to his name whereas Rahul Dravid was always solid. VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag played some scintillating innings for the team whereas Sourav Ganguly was known for his flamboyant play.

On the other hand, the current batters have also done a fine job. Kohli is the most consistent batsman in all the three formats of the game whereas Rohit Sharma has been a complete performer in the white ball formats. Cheteshwar Pujara has also done well in the red-ball format.

In fact, Yousuf feels the current bowlers don’t match the same standards of the previous generation bowlers.

“Kohli, Sharma, Pujara, (KL) Rahul are all quality batsmen but if I compare, the Indian batting (line-up) of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly was better,” Yousuf said as quoted by PTI. 

“You don’t have that sort of bowling quality nowadays, cricket has changed a lot and things are different now,” he said in an interview. 

On the other hand, Yousuf added that there were many great batsmen in his generation but he feels Sachin Tendulkar was the most complete batsman of them all.

“When I was playing for Pakistan there were many great batsmen in those days like Brian Lara, Pointing, Hayden but I always felt that Tendulkar was in every way the most complete batsmen.” 

Meanwhile, Yousuf also praised the current Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who is currently the best batsman in the world. The former stylish Pakistan batsman feels Kohli has got better as a batsman after taking over the captaincy baton from MS Dhoni.

On the other hand, Yousuf added that Pakistan captain Babar Azam shouldn’t be compared with Virat Kohli as the former has played for only five years whereas the latter has more experience than him. However, if the comparison is to be made based on the number of matches Babar Azam has played thus far, Yousuf feels the Pakistan skipper has done better.